Phone: (03) 9794 8258Archive for September, 2009
WHO is responsible for your child?
It’s always you. Every parent has to teach their own children. The school and the system is a support for that not a substitute. The school teaches how to read the Melways but you have to actually walk or drive there yourself. You are the active agent in the education of your child.
What are the needs that you want addressed?
The most common needs are real academic learning for more of the time, intellectual stimulation, moral environment at their developmental level and social friendships at their mental age not their chronological age. Having a friend who is a ’sure shelter’ type friend is beyond many primary children who are not gifted yet it can be reached by children in year 2 who are gifted.
These are the AIMS of our WiseOnes programs in schools- to provide for the Academic, Intellectual, Moral and Social needs of children in the top 5% who have extreme differences from those their own age.
HOW do you see the school fulfilling the child’s needs?
Academically and Intellectually and socially acceleration either by a whole year or by subject is the best. This may be needed more than once. There is a professional instrument called the Iowa Acceleration Scale that includes assessments of the social and emotional aspects as well as what the school and parents can and cannot do. It comes up with a score and recommends or does not recommend whole year acceleration. Friendship is really important to some children and not to others . The child could be included in the discussion. Profoundly gifted children probably will not find a peer friend at school so may as well be accelerated to get school over with quickly.
WHEN do you think it should happen?
All of this must happen in school time or it is not the school that is helping you. After school programs are extras and more work for those who don’t need it. They need recreation, tree climbing time, going for a walk time. They need suitable homework, not repetition.
Extension and enrichment classes are not differentiated curriculum for gifted children- they suit the “bright” children and the gifted usually enjoy them but they are not gifted education.. The very fast learners need appropriate, differentiated curriculum.
WHERE do you see your child going with their schooling?
Your expectations will set the pattern for their development. Make sure you have them assessed so you are not setting unrealistic expectations either too high or too low. Take the child’s temperament into account when selecting schools – single sex or mixed, special interests etc. Check what the principal says. Ask other parents of gifted children, if they will admit it.
WHY are you concerned?
Is your child unhappy? Has that glow of excitement about attending school worn off. Have you seen decreased outcomes in their talent areas? I know from long experience that if the child’s needs are being met they will go to school happily and will glow about it even if home is a disaster at the time. Good schooling can be a retreat from home strife. If school is fantastic they don’t want to go home until dinner time at the end of the day.
The following is a list of some characteristics shared by children who have high potential and may be fast learners. No child will show all of these, since high Potential does not mean in every area.
- Speak fluently using advanced level words. Seem older in their thinking.
- Very good memory for words, songs, rhymes, stories, places or numbers.
- Keen reader, may have read a bit before starting school.
- Obvious musical or artistic or sports talent ahead of others that age.
- Puts ideas together in unusual ways and may see things in a different perspective. May be a divergent thinker.
- Sets very high standards for self and others. Maybe has trouble due to perfectionism, may be quite judgmental.
- May have extra sensitivities to food or chemicals – rash, runny nose, voice a bit different, constipation, tummy pains
- Always does excellent work, beautifully presented. Near or at top of class.
- Refuses to write things down or hand in required work but will do things for hours at home, maybe even the school work that was not handed in.
- Doodles all over everything, books, work, walls when little, when thinking.
- Gets into trouble for asking too many questions and pestering the teacher.
- Can tell you all about a topic, in detail, but doesn’t complete the project.
- Has been assessed as gifted by a psychologist or university gifted centre.
- Has state run exam results off the top end – D or HD results
- Thinks and argues well, is independent, self-sufficient and may be bossy.
- Great interest in the future, dinosaurs, astronomy, death, world problems or computer games of skill, or electronics.
- Like to mix with children a couple of years older. They permit it.
- Have excellent general knowledge for that age. “A sponge” of knowledge.
- Very sensitive to injustice and unfair treatment of self or others. Stands up for the underdog and is altruistic at an early age. Like the rules to be kept.
- May have very few or even no friends in class as interests are too different.
- May be a social leader, take charge, run things, have many friends.
- May be a lovely, well mannered, good person who is balanced and friendly.
- May have deep emotional concerns about evil, death, war, poverty and their lack of ability to “fix” things. May suffer depression at an early age and ongoing.
- Read teenage magazines at a young age and take on inappropriate attitudes eg anorexia tendency. Usually they are not interested in the opposite sex too early because they can have them as real, ordinary friends.
- May be very sensitive to colour, perfume, clothing labels, rough cloth, nature scenes. Really get ecstatic about the good ones and avoid the bad ones. They could be quite fussy and you need to watch out and cooperate or they suffer real pain.
If your child fits several of these categories then it would be wise to have an assessment to check out their real potential . This may be done personally or online at www.testmychild.net.
The major need for these children is genuine socialization. Giftedness is a genetic condition which results in a brain that thinks differently from the average. Some call these children fast learners or high achievers.
These children are advanced not only academically but also morally and ethically. Many are underachievers even though they seem able enough.This means that most children their own age are not their intellectual peers.
As adults, we do not mix socially for hours every day with those our own age; we mix and find stimulation and enjoyment with those who are like us intellectually. Sometimes these children are bored in school. These children have the same needs and feel the same about their social life, but our society forces them by law to attend school and our schools group children by chronological age not mental age. There is no research to show that this is the most effective way to teach children.
Fast learners need to learn what others learn more easily, to fail and get up again, to judge when to do 120% work or 80% work, to understand that others think more slowly, to be with others with “odd” senses of humour, to find work challenging, to see that being clever is OK – normal in fact for some. They need faster paced, more complex and more abstract learning in the “big picture” issues.
Fast learners, gifted children are advanced in their ethical and moral development as well as in their thinking. They can be very judgemental at an early age and they expect everyone to keep their word, act ethically at all times and see the long term consequences of their decision as they do themselves. One of the most difficult things they have to learn is that not everyone is like themselves. Although they nearly always think they are right they have to learn that humans fail and they can fail too. Forgiveness is an essential learning for them. Some need to learn to fail so that they can achieve their full potential. Fear of failure, because your self image is tied to excellent performance, stops them from trying things that would really extend them. Some play safe and do less.
Kohlberg’s stages is one way of looking at ethical development. Others would judge by a religious principle or a secular humanist model. It seems that the highest ethical levels in Kohlberg are reached by only a few.
Stages of Moral Development {Adapted from Kohlberg, 1964)
Stage Issue of Moral Concern
Selfish Obedience
- I Rules followed to avoid punishment; obedience and concern for physical consequences.
- Doing things for others because it will result in others doing things in return; concern for reward, equal sharing and benefit to self.
- You see this stage in the infant school. However gifted children are beyond this by the time they come to school. They may have been past this before Kinder time. Their generosity and consideration of others is already operational. They expect more from their friends and they expect integrity from their teachers and the Principal. Stars for good behaviour or performance work because they like rewards.
Conforming to Traditions
- Whatever pleases the majority is considered morally right; other Viewpoints can be seen, conformity is prized, desire to do things for others.
- Group authority, law, duty and rules of society prized; concern for maintaining social order for its own sake; social disapproval avoided emphasis on the inherent ‘rightness’ of rules and duties.
Here you have the peer pressure of the upper school. You are ‘in’ or ‘out’ .
Friendships are not real buddies but rather power complexes. Gifted children may be left out of all this or keep to a very small group unless they are confident and successful sportspeople as well. If they are conforming on the outside they are still lonely on the inside. Most are introverted, about 70% so they don’t reveal what they are thinking and feeling.
Moral Principles Beyond Conformity
- Internal commitment to principles of personal conscience; concern with individual rights within standards set by consensus; emphasis on fair procedures for reaching consensus and for evaluating principles and rules.
By late primary school most gifted children are already beyond this stage even though many adults don’t t reach it. They make their own decisions based on their ethical principles. If the groups doesn’t go along they will do it themselves. They learn to make the most of adult contact and endure the childishness of their age peers. They don’t join in the really silly teenage things such as ‘Schoolies Week’ or get drunk.
The really lonely and desperate ones may consider suicide. This is because they are so empathetic to other people in the whole world- the prisoners of conscience, the starving due to poverty, the injustices of governments spending on armaments and letting their own people go without water, the frustration of seeing stupid or wicked adults vote and they cannot, their youth making them ineffective for the time being..
- Concern with universal ethical principles and abstract morality, affecting all beings regardless of conventional views; emphasis on universality, consistency, and logical comprehensiveness.
Now they are prepared to suffer for their ethical principles. This is not just on their own behalf but for others. They are big picture thinkers and want “Utopia”. It is not age but maturity that matters.
There are many and different definitions of gifted:
“The students who should be in gifted programs are those whose mental abilities are advanced to the degree that the regular school program simply does not meet their needs; anything else is politics” James H. Borland Understanding our Gifted Vo 5, Issue 6, July-August 1993
“Giftedness corresponds to competence which is distinctly above average in one or more domains of ability. Talent refers to performance which is distinctly above average in one or more fields of human performance.”
Francoys Gagne 1985
“Talent is a human activity or developed abilities while giftedness is human aptitude or natural abilities.” Francoys Gagne 1991
“Selection criteria included:
- at least a 125 Stanford Binet IQ
- good overall attitude to school
- Emotional and social maturity
- demonstrated ability in regular class in all phases of instruction
- demonstrated ability as proved by standardized test results”.
Alane J Starko, Life and Death of Gifted Programs Roeper Review Vo13 No1 1990
“Applicants must be in the top 5% of their class in academic performance or in the 95th percentile on a tested area of a standardized test administered by their school.”
Robert N Sawyer In Defense of Academic Rigour
“Gifted children learn at a different rate to other children. They crave depth in key areas of learning- their essence, core, and inherent concepts. They need challenge and stimulation of being together for part of every school day with expectations set high enough to stretch their potential ability to realize them. Their giftedness frequently manifests itself by age 3 and require nurturance on a regular basis from that time onward.”
Joyce Van Tassel-Baska, Appropriate Curriculum for the Talented Learner
“One basic premise is that gifted children are the tiny minority we suspect may someday produce important new theories, inventions, discoveries, artistic masterpieces, and solutions to monumental problems in order to enhance the human condition. Included also are those who show promise as exemplary performers in drama, medicine, teaching, politics, and diplomacy, social and clinical service and in any other way that preserves, prolongs, or adds meaning to life.”
Abraham J Tannenbaum, A Proposed Enrichment Matrix 1983
“Whether we are examining giftedness in academic subjects or performing arts, in sports, or in social leadership, giftedness or talent refers to exceptionality – a level of ability or performance possessed or achieved by a minority of the population. The claim that all or most children are gifted is frequently used by American and Australian educators or politicians who are opposed to special services offered to a minority of students. This claim is educationally and psychologically untenable and indicates a philosophical confusion between the concept of gifts and the concept of relative strengths.”
Miraca M Gross Gifts, Strengths and Politics: A Glance in the Driving Mirror in Understanding Our Gifted, Fall 1999.
Everyone has relative strengths, which we can see by comparison with other abilities we have. Gifts are measured normatively against others in the same field. Think of weaknesses and handicaps- we all have weaknesses but we don’t all have handicaps. It’s the same thing but at the other end of the scale.
“What is disheartening is the routine dismissal of general intelligence in favour of multiple intelligences.”…most of the materials I have seen lack the necessary sophistication to challenge the gifted… One advantage of the IQ test is its ability to identify exceptionally gifted students who have unique educational and socio-emotional needs(Gross 1993). A score of 130 on an individual intelligence test such as the WISC-III places the child in the top 2% of the population…,A score of 160 places the child in the top 0.003% ( 3 in 100,000)… Finding intellectual peers would be a great challenge for students with score of this magnitude. A program that would suit a child with IQ130 would be too simple and slow for one with IQ160”
Michael C Pyryt, Putting the ‘g’ back in Gifted Education. Understanding our Gifted , Fall 1999.
He says that teachers are unable to differentiate between these levels and the testing also shows up those who do not have high verbal ability, high achievement or high motivation. We see these as underachievers or with double trouble.
Catherine Cox studied the historical records of a large number of self made eminent men born since 1450, on whom she could gain sufficient data. What she found, in essence, is “the genius who achieves highest eminence is one whom intelligence tests would have identified in childhood.”
Terman,1954, p.225.
She studied childhood traits and later achievements. She included character, home background, emotional life, personality. The major findings were their persistence, depth of understanding and originality – the same characteristics Terman found in his study.
Leta Hollingworth, 1942, studied the brightest children she could find. They were so far removed from the average they had difficulty adapting to other people. They tended to be solitary, to read enormously, and to develop rich imaginary lives. She though the gifted should be subdivided into two groups IQ 125- 150 who could adapt to others and live successful lives including leadership and those above 150 who were very different. She said those with IQ over 170 ”are too intelligent to be understood by the general run of persons… have to contend with loneliness and with personal isolation” She thought that if those with IQ 180+ did not have satisfying human contact, society may lose some or all of their potential contribution.
James Duff,1929, studied whether IQ would match later school performance. He found that they were much more ambitious, good readers, came from very ordinary homes but they had fathers in work whereas those who did not do well had unemployed fathers.
Heuyer and Pieron (1950) studied the top 10% of French children identified as gifted and compared them to 10% of children in the middle range of intelligence. They found that illness, family problems, lack of motivation, geographical isolation were the main limiting factors for lack of performance at secondary level by the gifted.